Permanent Sheet Pile Basements

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd is a leading expert in the design and construction of steel-intensive sheet pile basements. This innovative solution specifically involves the use of sheet piles as the permanent sheet pile retaining walls for underground basement construction and can be utilised on underground car parks, pumping stations, basement, storage tanks and many other projects where underground retaining structures are required.

Working closely with leading developers, consulting engineers and contractors, right from the initial concept stage, Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd is able to offer invaluable advice to produce value-engineering solutions for any permanent basement construction. Often, this advice results in alternative permanent sheet pile basements being specified, which offer significant cost and programme benefits over traditional reinforced concrete basement construction. Such benefits can also be enjoyed on secant or contiguous piled walls.

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd is able to offer installation techniques to allow basement construction in even the most restricted and environmentally difficult locations, thanks to its impressive fleet of specialist equipment into which is continually putting significant investment.

Through its vastly experienced in-house design team, it can design steel sheet piles to support both temporary and permanent horizontal soil load. If necessary, it can also design a pile solution that carries vertical superstructure loads from a building construction above.

Designs are created to current EuroCode standards and also to the recommendations of relevant industry guidance documents, including CIRIA C760 ‘Embedded Retaining Walls: Guidance for Design’, ‘Steel Construction Institute’ Technical Document SCI P275 ‘Steel Intensive Basements’ and Highways Agency DMRB BD42/00 ‘Design of Embedded Retaining Walls and Bridge Abutments’. A design life of up to 120 years can be enjoyed by a permanent basement structure, by using sacrificial steel on the sheep-out section or protective paintwork systems.

Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd has developed a range of systems to ensure a 100% watertight basement construction is achieved, which includes non-structural welding to the exposed sheet pile interlocks and watertight wall/basement slab connections. All these construction styles ensure a watertight construction which meets the waterproofing requirements of the BS8102:2009 ‘Code of Practice for Protection of Structures against Water from the Ground’.

All welding works are carried out to specific Lloyd’s accredited welding procedures with associated welder qualifications, acceptance criteria and testing regimes followed, to ensure the highest levels of quality are achieved for the critical waterproofing works. A full insurance-backed warranty is provided for the permanent basement solution, which covers both design and waterproofing.